The son of a Jewish chemist from
Vitebsk and a
Swiss mother, after leaving school he studied history of art, classical archaeology and German language and literature in the universities of
Bern and
Munich. He obtained his doctorate in 1957 with a thesis on
Vincent van Gogh. He worked as an assistant at the Historisches Museum in Bern until 1959. In 1960, he was awarded a scholarship at the
Swiss Institute in Rome. In 1961, he was a leading art critic of the
Neue Zürcher Zeitung. has been a freelance writer. He has held various guest lectureships, including in 1984 in the
University of Frankfurt am Main and 1987 in
Washington University in St. Louis. Nizon's estate is archived in the
Swiss Literary Archives in
Bern. == Selected bibliography ==